Welcome to Gaia! ::

Seren was heading home after a later night of tutoring then usual, because she had to help a kid with his algebra that he was having trouble with. She did not resent this situation, the kid had a learning disability that was getting in his way, and she understood that he needed this extra time. She just wished his parents would schedule the time for this earlier in the day, since Nate had the car today and she was going to be taking public transit home.

She hoped Nate would be home tonight, he had not been home in two nights and she was lonely. She KNEW it was the overtime shifts, he always made sure to text her when one came up that would have him crashing on the bunks at his station, but it left her sleeping alone, and she was trying so hard not to be constantly sad about it. It was getting worse, lately. Part of her wondered if she was not doing enough for him, if she was boring him, and he needed the excitement of work to make up for it. Or maybe he was tired of her neediness. Or... She shook her head, trying not to get caught up in these thoughts. They were always hovering in her head a lot, recently, but she kept trying hard to shove them out. He told her, every time he was home, that he loved her and he missed her too, so part of her knew better.

Even so, those whispers screamed hard.

She turned a corner, wishing her student's home was closer to the nearest bus stop, but she had a block and a half still to go, and there was a park she was passing along besides. She did not like being here, powered down, but she did not feel right powering up just to go home, so she kept walking, hoping that she would not encounter anyone or anything.

Though if she saw something, perhaps she'd duck behind a bush and power up to deal with it... Depending on what was going on.

Carminite popped up in a different park than the usual. Annoying as it was since they didn't all have the same amount of privacy, they were at least all familiar at this point given how often he'd been visiting them all since he started working with his new general, so it didn't really matter. He always wound up at one after a few sparring sessions with his general. He lost every single time, walked away beaten damn near to a pulp, but he always felt stronger for it afterward. In pain, sure, but the pain ebbed after a few days. The experience was his to keep, forever.

Tonight was the same as most sparring nights--in sum, he was in a world of pain. Scrapes and bruises, bruises and gashes. In truth it was almost looked worse than it was, and he could handle the brunt of it powered. Powered down was a different story, though, so he preferred fixing himself up while powered so it just didn't suck as bad.

He was leaning against a tree, working off some of his uniform so he could tend to a particularly bad gash on his leg. His armor protected him from the worst of it, but at a glance his experience told him he'd need stitches. It'd be a patch-up for now, until he could get to the hospital.

After pulling a first-aid kit from subspace, Carminite was just about to glove up when he thought he spotted someone familiar. After doing a double-take, he froze. Then wondered on the time, because it felt a lot later than was safe for her to be walking home. Had he known, he would have gladly let her take the car.

Or did he just forget again? Damn his memory.

Seren was about to pass the park when she saw someone under a tree, very close to where she was going. For a moment, she froze, unsure of what to do... And then she swore out loud, because holy ******** of ALL the things she didn't want to encounter when powered down, an Agent was one of them.

Let alone that agent. Because of course it was him, she seemed to keep running into that b*****d. But now she had to get away from him and act like she was just scared of him because she was scared of someone in that weird outfit, and hide the fact that she recognized him.

This was going to be... Her eyes took in more detail and she saw that, once again, he was thoroughly beaten up, and holy ******** that injury seemed to be deep enough to need stitches. She'd had a few like that before, after all, and God damnit she was supposed to be feeling loathing and fear, not pity for this deluded idiot.

Part of her wondered if his own side did this, given this was the second time in a relatively short period. She didn't think anyone on her side was this wicked, willing to do that much damage, but she didn't really know everyone so she could be very wrong.

She stared, frozen in indecision, and beginning to shake a little from the fear/anger/pity emotional tension inside. She probably just looked terrified, which would make sense even if she had never met that Man In Green back before she dated Nate... But there was so much going on that she didn't know what to do.

Her brain caused her to panic blurt "I know Aikido, I can hurt you if you try to touch me!"

Her tone was an ever so impressive squeaky yelp. In her head, all she should think was 'OH YES VERY INTIMIDATING, SEREN.'

He had to stop himself from replying, “I know.” It was harder than he thought, actually, given the way she squeaked and all. It was hard not to try and comfort her, to keep to his usual self and how he was with strangers. The captain considered her, still frozen where he sat, and sighed.

“Do I look like I’m in a position to do anything to anyone?”

He tore his eyes away from her and double-checked his supplies again. Gauze, iodine, tape, gloves. After making sure he had what he needed, he waved her over. “If you do combat sports then you probably know a little something about first-aid. I’ve got some extra gloves, if you don’t mind being useful.”

There was a part of him that hoped she refused, if only because it’d be a reassurance that she’d likely refuse if it were any agent. There was another part of him that wanted her to come over, though. It was an excuse to be near her, even in this form, as much as it was a way for him to make sure she was safe. He had every intention of following her, granted it’d have to be in secret, up to a certain point back to their house. Just to make sure she made it okay.

She bit her lip at his question, looking him over. Honestly, he looked even worse than he had done when she had last seen him, and it hurt her heart, even as part of her felt vindicated by it. Injuries like this were not something to be ignored, or taken lightly. She hated seeing people in pain, hated walking away from their pain. That was what her own damn parents had done to her, though of course given that they had been the assholes to inflict the pain on her, it made sense they wouldn't care to help her.

But it also meant she had trouble walking away from pain.

"I s... Suppose not." She couldn't help the stutter, because there was no denying she was afraid of him. When powered up, she was less afraid, though part of her will probably always be afraid of any Agent of equal power to her, or greater. She bit her lip, shivering slightly in her nerves. It certainly was not cold enough for her to be shivering, after all. Indeed, it was a lovely night, the kind she would have LOVED to be on a walk with Nate, but... Well that seemed to be unlikely at the moment.

She stared at that one wound, the one that visibly needed stitches. Without thinking about it, her right hand slid to her shoulder, sliding to brush against the uppermost scar on her back. Just feeling it beneath her fingers left her squinching her face for a long moment, remembering how much they had hurt, how much it had hurt her emotionally to be left alone, to have to deal with all of it herself.

She took a slow, deep breath, then said "I can't believe you'd ask for help, and even more I can't believe myself... That one injury, the one that looks like it needs stitches. I'll help you take care of that. I can't let myself walk away from a wound like that." She looked so mad, so frustrated, but her hand brushed that scar again for a second, before she stalked over, (carefully) snatched a pair of gloves, and put them on. She then took the iodine, and a gauze, and with expert, gentle fingers... Much like she had used on Nate when he had been injured... She began to clean the wound. She was trembling with her anger and her fear, but even with that, she was gentle.

He watched her, wondering what exactly was on her mind when she reached for her shoulder. He knew what she was reaching for so he could hazard a guess, but it worried him that she might consider empathizing with other agents. Knowing how he worked, he could imagine others being the same. They wouldn’t think twice about draining a civilian, and there were those that wouldn’t think twice about pulling a starseed. They had a cause they were all working toward, after all. A common goal. Everything was really just a means to an end, as far as he could tell…

“I look like this and you’re surprised I asked for help?” He wanted to punch himself, but he forced the words out to keep a certain distance between them. He couldn’t allow any tells, give away any potential hints as to who he was. He was about to say more when she suddenly came toward him, grabbed the supplies and started treating him. She was gentle, to his surprise given her objections, so he bit his tongue.

“Thanks…” he managed, toward the end. “I more meant I could’ve used the extra hands to help with the bandaging part, but yeah.”

"Yeah, I am surprised you'd ask a stranger for help, honestly, since you have no idea how we'd react to one of you." After all, people like him were on the tv as terrorists all the time. It would be logical to assume her response would be to call the police or something.

When he explained what he meant, her brows lifted and she stared at the Agent for a long moment, then, in an extremely sarcastic tone she said "Ah yes. Because cleaning it out for you and walking off to leave you to bleed out was exactly the logical plan."

She shoved the iodine and dirty gauze at him, and snatched clean gauze and the tape, then began to carefully cover up the wound, taping it with the same care she'd cleaned it. Once that was done, she shoved the tape back at him, and stepped back. "That's the worst of it. You can manage the rest yourself. Be glad I helped at all, but I hate seeing people with wounds like that left to handle it themselves. You got ********' lucky, because I've met scum like you before."

Her eyes twitched with rage, remembering the Man in Green. "I am leaving. If I see you, sense you... I'll kick your a**, wounds or not."

Weakened as he was, he was still stronger than the average civilian, so no. He wasn't worried. And if she had called the police, it wouldn't be that much more energy to teleport away. Perhaps to another park in DC, or perhaps back to Negaspace.

It was so...weird. To be on the receiving end of her anger and irritation. He had the privilege, when he was Nate, to always see and experience her gentler side, even when she was correcting him or when they were having any kind of a heated discussion. He'd always felt so loved by her no matter what, so this was just...strange. Foreign, unfamiliar. And he didn't know how to be. Not really.

So her sarcasm, and subsequent roughness when telling him to be grateful she helped at all, was met with a quiet glare.

"I said 'thanks,' didn't I?" he muttered, then he quickly packed up the first-aid kit and promptly teleported away.